No. 29/1950:

INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY ACT, 1950

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

1 Definitions.

2 The Industrial Development Authority.

3 Functions of the Authority.

4 Members.

5 Power of Authority to summon witnesses, etc.

6 Officers and servants.

7 Annual grant.

8 Finances, accounts and audit.

9 Disclosure of documents of Authority.

10 Expenses.

11 Short title.

SCHEDULE

AN ACT TO ESTABLISH AN INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY AND TO PROVIDE FOR CERTAIN MATTERS CONNECTED THEREWITH.

[20th December, 1950.]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:—

1.—In this Act—

"the Authority" means the Industrial Development Authority;

"member" means a member of the Authority;

"the Minister" means the Minister for Industry and Commerce;

references to industry do not include references to banking, insurance or agriculture.

2.—(1) There shall be a body to be known as the Industrial Development Authority

(2) The Authority in the exercise of its powers and functions shall be responsible to the Minister.

(3) The members of the Authority shall consist of a chairman and not more than four other members.

(4) The members shall be appointed by the Minister with the consent of the Minister for Finance.

(5) The provisions of the Schedule to this Act shall apply with respect to the first appointment of members.

3.—The Authority shall be an autonomous body with the following functions:—

(i) to initiate proposals and schemes for submission to the Minister for the creation and development of Irish industries;

(ii) to survey possibilities of further industrial development and advise the Minister thereon;

(iii) to advise the Minister on steps necessary and desirable for establishing new industries;

(iv) to advise the Minister on steps necessary for the expansion and modernisation of existing industries;

(v) to give on request advice and guidance to persons contemplating starting new industries or expanding existing industries;

(vi) to investigate the effects of protective measures, with special reference to employment, prices, quality of goods, wage levels and conditions of employment and report thereon to the Minister;

(vii) to examine any proposals referred to the Authority by the Minister relating to the imposition or revision of tariffs, quotas or other protective or developmental measures, and to investigate the probable effects of such proposals, with special reference to employment, prices, quality of goods, wage levels and conditions of employment, and

(viii) to advise on any matter relating to industrial development referred to the Authority by the Minister.

4.—(1) The period of office of a member shall be fixed by the Minister when appointing him and shall not exceed five years.

(2) A person who is a member immediately before the expiration of the initial period for which he was appointed or any subsequent period for which he was re-appointed shall be eligible for re-appointment on terms not less favourable to him than those on which he was first appointed.

(3) The Minister may, by order, remove a member from office for stated misconduct or incapacity and shall lay any such order before each House of the Oireachtas.

(4) A member may resign his office by notice in writing to the Minister and the resignation shall take effect on the date on which the Minister receives the notice.

(5) The remuneration, terms of appointment and conditions of service of a member may be fixed by contract entered into with him by the Minister, acting with the approval of the Government.

(6) The members in the exercise of their duties shall be responsible to the Minister.

(7) A member shall devote to his duties the whole of his time or so much of his time as the Minister may from time to time direct.

(8) The Civil Service Regulation Acts, 1924 and 1926, shall not apply to the office of member.

(9) ( a ) Where a member of the Authority becomes a member of either House of the Oireachtas, he shall, upon his becoming entitled, under the Standing Orders of that House, to sit therein, cease to be a member of the Authority.

( b ) A person who is for the time being entitled under the Standing Orders of either House of the Oireachtas to sit therein, shall be disqualified from being a member of the Authority.

(10) No person shall be appointed to be a member unless he is ordinarily resident in the State.

(11) No member shall disclose any information obtained by him in the exercise of his functions under this Act as to the private affairs of any person or business except in the course of a report of the Authority to the Minister.

(12) Where a member has any financial interest directly or indirectly in any industrial undertaking, he shall before exercising any functions as a member declare the nature of such interest to the Minister and shall comply with such directions as the Minister may give him in regard to it.

(13) A member shall be disqualified from holding and shall cease to hold office if he is adjudged bankrupt, or makes a composition or arrangement with his creditors, or is sentenced by a court of competent jurisdiction to suffer imprisonment or penal servitude, or ceases to be ordinarily resident in the State.

5.—(1) The Authority may for the purposes of their functions do all or any of the following things:—

( a ) summon witnesses to attend before them,

( b ) examine on oath (which any member is hereby authorised to administer) the witnesses attending before them,

( c ) require a witness to produce to the Authority any document in his power or control.

(2) A witness shall not under any circumstances be called upon to disclose any particulars which would involve the divulging of secret manufacturing processes or recipes or of methods peculiar to the particular undertaking of such witness.

(3) The Authority shall not summon a witness to attend before them or require a witness to produce any document or furnish any information without informing the witness of the purpose for which the information is required by them.

(4) A witness before the Authority shall be entitled to the same immunities and privileges as if he were a witness before the High Court.

(5) If any person—

( a ) on being duly summoned as a witness before the Authority makes default in attending, or

( b ) being in attendance as a witness refuses to take an oath legally required by the Authority to be taken, or to produce any document in his power or control legally required by the Authority to be produced by him, or to answer any question to which the Authority may legally require an answer,

he shall be guilty of an offence under this section and shall be liable on summary conviction thereof to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds.

(6) A summons under this section shall be signed by at least one member.

(7) Proceedings for an offence under this section may be brought and prosecuted by the Minister.

6.—(1) The Minister, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, may appoint such officers and servants as he thinks necessary to assist the Authority in the performance of their functions.

(2) The officers and servants appointed to assist the Authority shall hold office on such terms and receive such remuneration as the Minister for Finance determines.

(3) The Minister, at the request al the Authority and with the consent of the Minister for Finance, may appoint technical advisers to the Authority and such advisers may be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas such fees or other remuneration as the Minister, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, determines.

(4) No technical adviser appointed under subsection (3) of this section shall disclose any information obtained by him in performing his duties as such adviser except in the course of a report made by him to the Authority.

(5) A person who contravenes subsection (4) of this section shall be guilty of an offence under this section and shall be liable on summary conviction thereof to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds.

7.—In the financial year current at the passing of this Act and in every subsequent financial year, there shall be paid to the Authority out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas a grant of such amount as the Minister, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, may determine for defraying the remuneration of the members and such expenses, incident to their work, as the members in their sole discretion consider necessary to enable them to discharge their functions.

8.—(1) It shall be the duty of the Authority to administer the annual grant.

(2) The Authority shall keep in such form as may be approved of by the Minister, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, all proper and usual accounts of moneys received and expended by them, and in particular shall keep all such special accounts as the Minister may from time to time direct.

(3) The accounts shall be submitted annually by the Authority to the Comptroller and Auditor General for audit at such time as the Minister, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, shall direct and the said accounts, when so audited, shall, together with the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General thereon, be presented to the Minister who shall cause copies thereof to be laid before each House of the Oireachtas.

9.—The Authority shall not, without the consent of the Minister, disclose any document in their custody or under their control, production of which is sought in relation to any legal proceeding, and the Minister may claim the like privilege in respect of the document as if it were in his own custody.

10.—The expenses incurred by the Minister in the administration of this Act shall, to such extent as may be sanctioned by the Minister for Finance, be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.

11.—This Act may be cited as the Industrial Development Authority Act, 1950 .

SCHEDULE

FIRST MEMBERS OF THE INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY.

Section 2 (5).

1. The appointments (made by the Minister for Industry and Commerce, with the approval of the Minister for Finance, by warrants dated the 26th day of May, 1949) of James Patrick Beddy as member and chairman and Kevin C. McCourt, Luke J. Dully and John J. Walsh as members of the Industrial Development Authority shall take effect on the passing of this Act as appointments to the like offices of the Authority established by this Act for the period ending on the 25th day of May, 1954.

2. The said James Patrick Beddy shall, as on and from the 26th day of May, 1949, be remunerated at a rate of not less than £2,500 a year and the said Kevin C. McCourt, Luke J. Duffy and John J. Walsh shall, as on and from the same date, be remunerated at a rate of not less than £2,000 a year.

3. If the said James Patrick Beddy is chairman when he reaches the age of 65 years, he shall be entitled on resignation to a pension payable from moneys provided by the Oireachtas of an amount equal to that to which he would have been entitled if he had continued to serve with the Industrial Credit Company, Limited, after the 26th day of May, 1949, and had qualified for the full pension which he would have been entitled to be paid by that Company.

4. ( a ) If at any time before he reaches the age of 65 years the said James Patrick Beddy is eligible for reappointment as Chairman and is not so reappointed, the provisions of paragraph (3) shall apply as if he had been so reappointed and had held office until he reached the age of 65 years.

( b ) This paragraph shall not have effect if the Minister declines to reappoint him because of stated misconduct or incapacity or if he refuses to accept reappointment.

5. If the said James Patrick Beddy retires from the office of chairman on the ground of ill-health before reaching the age of 65 years, and his retirement is accepted by the Minister, he shall be entitled to be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas such pension as he would have been entitled to had he then retired from the service of the Industrial Credit Company, Limited.

6. The pension, whether arising under paragraph 3, 4 or 5, shall be computed by reference to the salary as chairman to which the said James Patrick Beddy shall have been entitled immediately before ceasing to hold office in the circumstances referred to in the relevant paragraph.

7. Any award of pension under this Schedule shall be made by the Minister for Finance on the recommendation of the Minister for Industry and Commerce.

8. If, after the award of pension, the pensioner holds a post remunerated out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas or out of the Central Fund or by a local authority or a board or body established under an Act of the Oireachtas or a Saorstát Éireann statute or jointly by two or more of the above-mentioned, then—

( a ) the pension shall not be payable for any period for which the remuneration equals or exceeds the salary by reference to which the pension was computed;

( b ) if for any period the sum of the pension and remuneration exceeds the said salary, the pension shall be reduced for that period by the amount of the excess.

9. If, after the award of pension, a second pension is payable to the pensioner in respect of service in a post of a kind referred to in paragraph 8, then—

( a ) the pension under this Schedule shall not be payable for any period for which the second pension equals or exceeds two-thirds of the salary by reference to which the pension under this Schedule was computed;

( b ) if for any period the second pension is less than two-thirds of the said salary, the pension under this Schedule shall be reduced for that period to the amount of the deficiency.

10. Payment of the pension shall be subject to the making by the pensioner of a declaration in such form and at such times as the Minister for Finance may require.

11. ( a ) The Minister for Finance may determine that part of a payment in respect of the pension under this Schedule shall be borne by the Industrial Credit Company, Ltd.

( b ) If the Minister for Finance so determines, he shall also determine the amount of the payment to be borne by the Company and the Company shall pay that amount to the said Minister.

( c ) Any amount paid to the Minister for Finance under this paragraph shall be paid into or disposed of for the benefit of the Exchequer in accordance with the direction of the said Minister.